We have been getting a lot of questions lately on supplements and very few showed up for the supplement talk, there is a link on the side of our page to our Advocare site. They have a complete line of "Trim", "Active" and "Well". Please feel free to ask us about anything you see on the site. The 24 day challenge could be something to help jump start your Fat Loss Challenge (multiple members including Karin have had great success with this) or just getting the Bio Tools to help your joints, there is something for everyone in there.

As many of you have seen, the Custom Fit Meals cooler lives in CrossFit Royalty! Through this service, we have access to fresh, never frozen meals made from quality ingredients.

Here is what you need to know:

Order at CustomFitMeals.com by the midnight Tuesday deadline for meal pick-ups the following week. There are two pick-ups per week – Mondays and Thursdays during normal business hours.

About Custom Fit Meals:

All meals are prepared in a fully licensed commercial kitchen by a team of culinary chefs, delivered safely to CrossFit Royalty via refrigerated vehicle, and stored on-site in the Custom Fit Meals cooler.

There are no contracts or commitments. All orders are placed week to week. All meals are made from FRESH, unprocessed ingredients. Gluten-Free, Primal, and Paleo meals are available. There are 15 menu items offered each week and 6 weeks of rotating menus. Meals are sold in increments of 5.

Custom Fit Meals’ nutritional philosophy is based on eating real food – fresh, natural food like lean meats, vegetables and fruit. Their meals are comprised of foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, as opposed to processed foods that have more calories but less nutrition.

Food quality is important to them, as well. They maintain the highest standard in selecting the foods that go into their meals. They use only USDA-certified All Natural chicken, grass-finished Certified Angus Beef®, all natural turkey and pork. They source the majority of these proteins and as much of their fresh produce as possible from local sources.

The CFM program is not a “diet”. It’s a lifestyle, based on well-balanced nutrition that gives you what you need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight. Each meal they serve contains a lean source of protein, a generous helping of nutrient-dense vegetables and/or fruit, natural sources of quality carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

Their meals are designed to help you establish and maintain a healthy metabolism, and allow you to improve your body composition, energy levels, sleep quality, mental attitude and quality of life. They also help to minimize your risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases and conditions like diabetes, heart attack, stroke and autoimmune disorders.

All of their meals are “clean”, relying on a foundation of fresh, natural ingredients. All of their meals are gluten-free, and many of them do not contain other potentially inflammatory ingredients like dairy and legumes. Best of all, while their meals are extremely healthy, they also taste great. This is due to the high-quality ingredients they use, along with the expertise of their chefs in combining flavors and advanced cooking techniques to create meals with a wide variety of unique flavors and textures.

A large number of their menu items take the next major step, from a nutritional standpoint, and fall into the “paleo” category. They believe (and we agree) that paleo is the healthiest, cleanest way we can eat. While eating paleo might not be for everyone, the folks at Custom Fit Meals feel it is an excellent starting point that allows you to truly determine what foods are best suited to you. By eliminating as many potential inflammatory foods from your diet as possible and seeing the effect this has on your body and wellness, then slowly adding them back in under a controlled setting, the CFM program can help you determine which specific types of food truly are good for you.

We’re excited to offer this service and look forward to helping you meet your nutrition and fitness goals!

Over the holidays a big challenge will be maintaining your caloric intake while meeting your weight loss/gain goals.

Here is a quick example lets say you are supposed to eat 2000 calories a day (just using that for easy numbers)

That is 14000 calories a week. Mon-Fri and Sunday you eat 1600 and exercise for about 1000 calorie burn. That is a 3500 calorie deficit Awesome a pound a week if you are doing really well.

BUT then on Saturday you go out and eat a little extra maybe an appetizer dinner desert so food is around 2800 calories for Saturday, still no problem you are down 2700 cal for the week. But then you throw on a few beers or mixed drinks at around 250 calories or more lets say 4 drinks in 1 night (or 4 drinks during the week) that is another 1000 calories so now you are only down 1700 for the week. Ok still making some progress but at that rate it will take you 3 weeks to lose a pound.

Do you see how the one night of bad eating/drinking can ruin the week if you are not careful . And this example isn't even a ruined week you are still net negative calories but it will just take you longer to lose.

Here are some things you should know to help you survive!

Intermittent Fasting before that holiday party! - The idea is that you'll fast til before the party, have a 25g(w)/30g(m) Protein shake prior to the party and be able to indulge while still getting your goal caloric intake for the day.

Have a plan for what you plan to eat/drink at the party.

Workout before the party to engage your metabolism and create a caloric deficit.

The whole healthy body composition thing is all about balance :)

Drinking Tips:

Pour yourself half as much. This will help you limit yourself to one or two drinks per party.

Avoid higher calorie mixed drinks like eggnog, margaritas, mudslides, or other sugary mixed drinks–or have one and consider it dessert.

There is a wealth of information on all three of these styles of eating. Each way of eating has countless success stories. Take some time and go through all of the information below and if you have any questions please see one of the coaches at the box. Ultimately the choice is up to you on what you decide to do with your eating habits, but DO something. Eating healthy should be a life long commitment, not just "I need to get ready for the beach." That being said do not deprive yourself of things you enjoy, we are not on this Earth to walk around miserable everyday because Ice Cream is not Paleo. Enjoy some indulgences, eat smart the majority of the time, and exercise at high intensity, and you will kick ass at life. Pretty simple right?

Zone:

The Zone diet is basically a Science. Ideally you would measure out your "blocks" for each meal. This style is very good for detail oriented people that do not mind lots of planning. Unlike the other two the Zone diet allows for some grains as long as you stay within your block schedule. After a while of following the Zone diet, you understand what is going on and how many blocks are in most foods and the size of most portions you should eat. Check out the following links for some more information.

The Paleo diet essentially is what our caveman(woman) ancestors ate. Lean meats, fish, vegetables, some fruit, tree nuts (no peanuts or peanut butter), seeds, some starch. This excludes sugar, grains, legumes, white potatoes, dairy products and corn. Generally all the excluded items are foods that people have allergies to or have difficulty digesting those foods.

I know this is a lot of information and how do you decide which one to follow? Well that's what your coaches are for:) Make sure if you have any questions about anything ASK!!! All of the coaches are here to help (just make sure if you ask Pete you don't have to be anywhere for a while, or just tell him to stop:)